Original , Color, Stone Lithograph
"Lovers"
by Emil Weddige - (1907-2001)
Image: 26" x 21"
Sheet: 30" x 23"

Pencil signed, titled & numbered: #72 of 100

See Detail photo at left, below.

This wonderfully whimsical, floating lovers' kiss is a lifetime print by Emil Weddige, master of the stone lithograph. It was acquired directly from the Weddige estate, and is in excellent condition, having never been framed or matted.

See Background, below.

Pencil marked and titled:
72/100
Lovers

Pencil signed by the artist:
Emil Weddige

Detail

PARTIAL LISTING OF STUDIOS

PARTIAL LISTING OF COLLECTIONS

BACKGROUND: Emil Weddige was born of American parents in Sandwich, Ontario, Canada in 1907. He showed artistic talent early on, and was fond of saying, "I learned to talk by hearing adults say the name of what I had just drawn."

He received his BA at Eastern Michigan University in 1904, later studying at the Art Students League in New York. under Morris Kantor, and at Woodstock, under Emil Ganso. It was with Ganso that he was introduced to lithography, the medium with which he was to become most closely identified.

In 1937 he joined the University of Michigan Art Department as an instructor, later receiving his Master of Design,
In 1949 he established a studio along the Montparnasse in Paris, where he was to work, off and on, all his life. He subsequently accepted a fellowship at the prestigious Tamarind Lithography workshop in California.

In 1957, he was appointed professor of art at UM, and, in 1974, professor emeritus. He retired that year, to devote himself to his art and his chosen medium, stone lithography.

Emil Weddige is widely acknowledged as one of the pioneers in the rebirth of color lithography. He literally 'wrote the book' on the subject/ "Lithography." published in 1966, is regarded as the definitive text on lithography by most colleges and universities in the United States.

Stone lithography is a very demanding and almost totally unforgiving medium. "To lay between eight and 12 colors, one over the other, on a single piece of paper, as does Weddige, drawing, inking, printing and cleaning the stone, then repeating the process ad infinitum, to excruciatingly close tolerances, requires a degree of stamina, dedication and finesse that is seldom encountered in this increasingly lackadaisical world of ours." (James Auer, art critic for the Milwaukee Journal)

"...in 1975, I labeled Emil Weddige as America's most prominent lithographer ... looking over his work and lifetime, there is no one to surpass the dedication and excellence of his life and work ... he paints for the masses, but the work is for the most sophisticated." (Roland Poska, director, Fishy Whale Press)

"In an era in which the meaning of the term 'original print' has been twisted out of all semantic reason, a signed and numbered lithograph by Emil Weddige remains the very essence of the personal artistic statement ... heartfelt, handcrafted, unique and ultimately irreplaceable." (James Auer, art critic for the Milwaukee Journal)